FIGS. 1 and 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 3,644,109 disclose strand pulling and chopping apparatus in an arrangement including a single bushing and FIGS. 1 and 2 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,292 disclose strand pulling and chopping apparatus in another arrangement including as many as five bushings. The strand threading attachment of our invention may be used with a single or a plurality of bushings feeding the pulling and chopping apparatus.
Formerly when strand pulling and chopping apparatus was pulling and chopping strands from five bushings and a strand breakout occurred at one of the bushings, it was necessary to reduce the rotational speed of the puller - chopper temporarily in order to allow the operator to rethread the strand therein in a relatively safe manner after restarting the disrupted bushing. The reduction in speed increased the size of the filaments in the strands from the other four bushings. Chopped strand material with oversize filaments had to be diverted and scrapped.